


A Bad Caper

by fredbassett



Category: Modesty Blaise - Peter O'Donnell
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-10-16 14:33:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17551514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fredbassett/pseuds/fredbassett
Summary: There are times when Modesty just needs to let go of her emotions, but usually only with Willie. This time, he’s not around.





	A Bad Caper

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for Rachelmanija's fandom stocking.

“Oh my dear…” Sir Gerald Tarrant stared in horror at the crouched shape in the corner of the dark cellar. A 40-watt bulb swung from the ceiling but failed to dispel the shadows.

“Is she okay?” Dinah Collier’s voice held the legacy of a week of pent-up fear that had stretched her almost to breaking point as she had spent long hours using her own special skills in a desperate attempt to locate Modesty after her attempt to infiltrate a gang engaged in drug running and people trafficking had been blown apart by an informer inside Tarrant’s own department.

Modesty raised a filthy, blood-streaked face. “I’m alive,” she rasped. “Have you found Jack?”

Tarrant nodded, moving quickly to her side. “He’s alive. We need to get you both to hospital. There’s an ambulance on its way.”

He had a bundle of keys in his hand, taken from one of the thugs now being dragged away to waiting vans, and started trying them in turn on the handcuffs locking Modesty’s wrists to an old cast iron radiator. He could see deep gashes in her flesh where she had tried unsuccessfully to work her hands out of the restraints. Fraser’s arms were equally badly damaged.

“This is the last time I send you into danger,” Tarrant vowed.

Modesty looked into his eyes and her battered lips quirked into a slight smile. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep. And for the record, you didn’t send me anywhere. I went of my own accord.”

Tarrant held his arm out to her, wanting to help Modesty to her feet, but knowing better than to touch her without invitation in these circumstances. He was relieved when she held his arm and allowed him to help her up. 

Dinah hurried to Modesty’s side, helping to steady her.

Modesty’s ripped and buttonless shirt gaped open as she straightened up. She was braless underneath and Tarrant saw scratches and dark bruises on her skin. He quickly slipped off his jacket. “Slip your arms into this, my dear.”

“Worried I’ll scandalise my rescuers?” she said, the half-smile falling short of her eyes by a long way.

“Allow an old man his sensibilities.”

Modesty obliged him, moving carefully, but even so she couldn’t prevent a slight gasp of pain surfacing as Dinah deftly did up the buttons.

“Ribs?” he asked, already knowing the answer. He’d sat by Fraser’s bedside on more than one occasion after an operation had turned bad, and he knew the signs.

“One broken, two cracked,” she said matter-of-factly, and Tarrant did not doubt the accuracy of her statement for a second.

“Go to Jack,” Modesty murmured. “He’ll need you. It was a bad one.”  


Knowing her talent for understatement, Tarrant felt his stomach twist in a churning mix of cold fear and burning anger. But he had known Modesty long enough to do as he was told.

“I’ll make sure no one comes in here until you are ready.” He hesitated for a moment, then added, “Modesty, I meant what I said. Never again.”

“And I meant what I said.”

It would have been ungentlemanly to argue.

**** 

Modesty waited until Tarrant had left the room before saying, “Jack really does need him, but…”

“But you need some space too, honey,” Dinah finished for her, slipping her arm around Modesty’s waist. “I’m sorry Willie and Steve aren’t here, but just tell me what you need…”

“Just hold me,” Modesty murmured, sinking to her knees on the filthy cellar floor, as her legs began to tremble, and her shoulders started to shake with silent sobs.

She rarely cried after a caper, and never on anyone other than Willie, but she was glad of Dinah’s gentle arms around her shoulders as she buried her head in Dinah’s hair and let go of everything she had endured during the three hellish days after they’d been rumbled by the gang. 

The pair of them had been been tortured in the hope of finding out how far the criminal organisation had been compromised when their mole in Tarrant’s department had stopped responding to messages. Modesty and Fraser both knew that ultimately no one held out under torture, but they had been buying time to give Dinah the chance to use her talents to locate them as she’d done when she’d found Danny Chavasse.

Dinah simply held her close, saying nothing, letting Modesty find her own way back from the brink. When the tears finally stopped, Modesty drew in a deep breath, held it for several heartbeats, then breathed out slowly, centring herself, then taking the memories of the last three days and locking them away in a black velvet box in her mind where they would gradually fade.

She accepted the spotless cotton handkerchief that Dinah handed to her, wiped her eyes, blew her nose and mustered a smile, even though she knew Dinah couldn’t see her.

The blind girl gently ran the tips of he fingers over Modesty’s face, seeing her that way, feeling the bruises, the cuts and the swollen lips.

“Oh honey, they really have done a number on you.”

“Don’t tell Steve or Willie until they get back, they’ll only worry.”

“Willie’s ears will have been prickling for days.”

Modesty smiled ruefully, knowing Dinah was right, but Willie was with Maude Tiller somewhere uncontactable in the Belize jungle putting some of Tarrant’s latest recruits through their paces. Steve was on a lecture tour in Canada. She hoped that by the time either of them saw her, some of the worst of her injuries would be on the mend.

“As soon as he surfaces, I’ll tell him not to worry, and you can do the same with Steve.”

Dinah pressed a soft kiss to Modesty’s forehead. “We can tell them, honey, but they’ll take no notice.”

Modesty rested her head on Dinah’s shoulder for a moment, taking time to just accept the comfort she was being offered. Comfort from a friend, with no strings attached.

Thanks to Dinah, she was nearly ready to face the world again.


End file.
